According to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, workplace accidents and compensation payments cost businesses £7.8 billion a year.

This is a cost where there is room for savings the government is suggesting. Further to the ideas for red tape reduction the government is hoping to make it more difficult for employees to be eligible for pay outs over health and safety at work issues.

Iain Duncan Smith’s Department of Work and Pensions has commissioned a review of 200 separate health and safety regulations aimed at restoring “common sense” to workplace safety. At the moment employers are responsible for their employees who become injured doing something in the course of their employment. However, the government is looking at loosening this area up so that responsibility can be dispensed of where it can be proved that the employee acted irresponsibly. The idea is to remove the ability for employees to issue claims for things that they as an individual should be able to be deemed to know or understand. An example brought up by the investigation carried out by Kings College London, was of an employee who was injured when opening a gate complained that he had not been given training on opening gates.

In a similar way to which employers are fearful of unfair dismissal claims they also fear being sued for even minor injuries. A lot of the regulation in the employment sphere has come from Europe, however it has been argued that the UK too zealously interprets the law making us less competitive than others in the EU. Like anything a balance must be achieved between protecting the employee and ensuring that they get the training that is required but also ensuring that employers are not overly burdened by responsibilities to them.  The traditional view of master and servant is what has led to the attitude that employers should protect their employees but the copious amount of regulation has meant that the government now needs to protect the 'masters'.

The Employment Minister, Chris Grayling said he expected “radical” changes to emerge from the review commenting that “we have the best record on health and safety in Europe, but also one of the worst records for unnecessary health and safety red tape. That has to go”.